Our regular columnist, Mom2KG, tackles the age old debate of whether to re-gift or not to re-gift

The holiday season is upon us all. We are making lists, and shopping so frantically that the magnetic strips on our credit cards are crying for mercy. But do you really need to buy something for everyone? Do you have a pile of gifts you’ve received in your basement, wondering what to do with them?

Yes, re-gifting. An eternal etiquette question we’ve all pondered. There’s Aunt Myra’s lovingly handmade doily set. You can admire the time and effort and skill, but doilies? Who the hell uses doilies anymore? On the other hand, there’s the pile of clothes your toddler got from in-the-know friends, complete with gift receipts. You’re never going to use the doilies, and some of the kids’ clothes don’t fit your child. What to do?

Pros:

• Re-gifting saves money and, however slightly, reduces consumer consumption and environmentally-unfriendly packaging
• The original gift-giver never needs to know
• Some recipients don’t mind receiving a re-gift (of course, you don’t have to actually tell them)

Cons:

• The recipient, if told of the provenance of the gift, might think you’re cheap, tacky or even a jerk
• The original gift-giver might be very offended you did not use, love and appreciate the gift
• You cannot do this as a matter of course; you have to still give an appropriate gift.

Tips for re-gifting:

• Know your giftee. If they are going to be irritated or offended at a re-gift, either don’t tell them, or just don’t do it at all
• Don’t re-gift to get rid of crappy stuff you have. If you don’t want it, your brother doesn’t want it either
• Keep track – do not re-gift the same thing back to the original gift-giver
• Make the gift special – re-wrap it, write a nice card, make sure it’s clean and unused, and something the recipient will enjoy
• Don’t re-gift items that have been used, worn, tried out, or even removed from the original packaging.

Good luck and happy holidays to all.

Today is a continuation of yesterday’s post on what to do if you buy a home with a problem; a dialogue between myself and my regular columnist, Mom2KG. Today we talk about how real estate lawyers help (or don’t) and how to approach the vendor in solving problems in the house they are selling you.

My comments are in italics and Mom2KG in bold. Enjoy.

TMW: Yesterday we left off at how the real estate agent was helpful because she knew time was of the essence and got on top of the problem quickly. How about the lawyers?

Mom2KG: The lawyers, on the other hand, were a mixed bag at best. We ended up having four different lawyers, plus ourselves. The lawyer we retained to close the purchase does a very narrow type of work. He closes sales all day, and never deals with problem properties. This was way beyond his retainer. As lawyers, we understood his position.

TMW: Moral of the story is the business model of real estate lawyers is quantity, quantity, quantity with prices to match. Most retail real estate lawyers are ill equipped to deal with problem closings or closings which are out of the norm (shared drive-ways, properties with water frontage, very old homes etc). In this case, you need to pay a few extra dollars for a specialized real estate lawyer or you need to get a second opinion. So what did you do?

Mom2KG: We decided we had to retain a lawyer specializing in environmental law. The first guy we found was very good, again holding our hands and giving us options. He had to educate the vendor’s lawyer on their obligations (with us footing the bill on that call) and again made our position clear.

Unfortunately, he had to pass us off to someone else at his firm, and that lawyer was a complete train wreck. He was incapable of assessing risk, and refused to provide any advice on the real estate side of things. For example, he would not discuss anticipatory breach, claiming that was a real estate issue, and he did not do real estate. So, we had to retain a real estate specialist to help us assess the legalities of backing out or staying in the deal. It was really, really trying.

TMW: That sounds horrible. How could that lawyer have handled things differently? Why do you think the lawyers were less helpful than the agent?

Mom2KG: That second environmental lawyer provided almost no value. No context, no “real world” examples of what our real risk was. We got tons of education on the requirements of the environmental legislation, right down to the maximum parts per million of petroleum allowed in soil and water samples. Who cares? I wanted to know what the risks were in buying a property that was probably clean (after the sellers removed the tank and got in an expert to test the soil). But he simply would not help us with that.

That lawyer was clearly concerned with the extent of his own liability. He kept saying “I’m an environmental lawyer. I don’t do real estate.” Or, “I can’t tell you what to do. I can only tell you the law.” To some extent, that’s true, but lawyers are also supposed to be trusted advisors who can help with decision-making. Our agent, on the other hand, was more interested in helping us than in potentially getting sued. She actually endeared herself to us by freely admitting she had “missed” the oil tank when we first looked at the house. The lawyer, on the other hand, was primarily concerned with his own responsibility in the matter and was unwilling to take any risk himself.

TMW: With your lawyer’s hat on, what role did tackling the problem early help in dealing the vendor?

Mom2KG: We knew there was no time to lose when we first found the problem. We know getting environmental reports can take weeks, and we didn’t have that time. We had to give the sellers time to remedy the problem and satisfy us. You can’t wait to present a huge problem until the day of closing. We were also able to educate ourselves on our possibilities and choices. Finally, it meant we were able to send a consistent message for the weeks this took: we wanted the house, but without the tank or environmental damage.

TMW: What steps did you finally take to provide some satisfactory conclusion that you would be buying the house of your dreams?

Mom2KG: We advised the sellers, through their lawyers and agent, what we needed: the tank removed, and proof we could rely on that it was a clean property, free from oil contamination. We managed to get the purchase and sale agreement amended to say the sellers would do that, so we had some contractual strength. Then, we kept a close eye on what was happening. At every step, we consulted with our lawyers to assess how things seemed to be going. We used our second visit to the house to bring in our own environmental consultant to determine the progress. We continued to advise the sellers of what we needed and expected. We also ensured that the report provided by the seller’s consultant was addressed to us, so we could rely on it if ever there was another problem.

TMW:  What would you have done differently?

Mom2KG: I would have asked for an all-party meeting or mediation early on. It was very frustrating communicating through agents and lawyers. We all should have sat down together so we could present the facts, issues and needs with a more human face. We kept wondering if in fact the vendors were getting all the info we were lobbing over, and I don’t think they did. I think an early meeting would have helped thing along immensely. I would have kept it very low-key and agreed to have it as “no prejudice” – not admissible as evidence in court.

TMW: Let’s recall lessons learned then if you run into an issue purchasing or selling a home.

1. Know what you want
2. Time is of an essence
3. Be specific as to remedy
4. Don’t assume the other side will do your work for you. Be proactive in the solution.
5. Use your professionals but always refer to #1.

Is that about it?

Mom2KG:  Yes, I think that’s it. You also have to have good communications with your partner, and you have to resist the temptation to lay blame. There a solution does not lie.

TMW:  Wow, you dropped some Yoda-sim on us. Thanks for sharing. It is a great home in a beautiful neighborhood. If you ever build a spare room over the garage, I will gladly play the Arthur Fonzarelli role and move in.

Decide to buy a home. Hire a real estate agent. Look for houses. Look again. Make an offer on a home. Make another offer. Enter into an agreement of purchase and sale…. and, now, there is a problem before closing. What do you do? Can your real estate agent help you? Your real estate lawyer? Fight or flight?

Today’s post is a 2 parter between myself and my regular columnist, Mom2KG. We re-live a real life issues arising from  purchasing real estate with some problems and share lessons learned. As always, in these types of situations, it is important to obtain advice. My comments are in italics. Mom2KG’s in bold. Enjoy.

TMW: Mom2KG, I believe it was a Wednesday morning when I got an email from you indicating that there was a problem with buying your home followed by a bunch of four letter words. What exactly was the problem?

Mom2kG: Yup, and now that the problem has been solved, we continue to tell the story using lots of 4-letter words. It was an extremely stressful situation.

We had agreed with the seller that we could visit the home twice before closing. Typically, this is so you can measure for curtains or think about paint colours, or just gaze lovingly at your new ensuite bathroom. On our first visit, my husband realized there was an oil tank buried in the back yard. This was bad – an untold environmental liability. We had purchased the home with no conditions – so no home inspection – so we had no idea if we could get out of this or what our options were.

TMW:  Just so that the readers don’t think you are not a smart consumer, buying a house without conditions occurs in Toronto quite often, in order to head off bidding wars. So what you did was not out of the ordinary course.

By way of background to the readers, in Ontario, under the environmental legislative regime, oil tanks buried in grounds were required to have been removed. In other words, having a buried oil tank is now illegal in Ontario. At this point, you really have two obvious options: buy or don’t buy. What did you end up doing?

Mom2KG: We ended up buying. As readers may know, we’re both lawyers. So we called some contacts, and if things weren’t already off the rails, this compounded matters. Astoundingly, each lawyer gave us a different answer, ranging from “GET OUT NOW” to a more reasoned approach. It was really scary in the first few days. And confusing. Besides the illegality issues, we didn’t know if the tank had leaked and caused contamination under the house or even offsite.

However, there were very good reasons to pursue a remedy instead of running. First, we wanted the house – it was great. Location was great. Nothing else had come on the market in weeks. We had already sold our own home. As well, we knew, as lawyers, we had to give the sellers a chance to step up. You have to give them a chance to be reasonable. Finally, we had a leg to stand on – the oil tank existed illegally and no court (if it got to that) would force us to accept a property  not complying with law. But court was also the last place we wanted to end up.

TMW: What is important to note in your response is that as badly as you may have wanted out, I am assuming here, the lawyer in you probably said “have to play this out and put ourselves in a position where a reasonable person would say you did everything you could” before you backed out. Process is key. In most cases, you can’t pull the plug without going through the process.

Mom2KG: Yes, that was a major driver in the decision. You can’t just back of a contract and not incur some wrath, which can lead to serious fights and even litigation. We mapped out a lot of “what-ifs” and one was that if we ever got to court, we needed to be able to say we acted reasonably, even if it was the sellers who were ultimately in the wrong by not removing the oil tank years ago and then by not informing us of its existence.

TMW:  There’s a couple of educational items for readers to note. As you imply, that you cannot contract for an illegal act and, even if you breached the contract, you breached it for an illegality, which makes your argument substantively stronger.

But most home purchasers do not buy homes with illegalities in them. In most cases, problem closings come down to less dramatic issues like the purchaser bought without conditions or the conditions are waived and the purchaser gets laid off and cannot obtain a mortgage and closing.

In these instances, there is a doctrine known as “anticipatory breach.” In plain English, this means a promising party knows that they can’t fulfill their part of the bargain before the time promised and tells the other side before the closing dead/date the bargain is closed.

It may be strange to a non-lawyer that one would tell the other side you are in breach but the reason why you do this is because the other side has a duty to mitigate damages. In the real estate context, this means the vendor has to resell the house. If the house is resold for more than the purchaser bought it for and their other costs are covered (legal fees), the purchaser is basically off the hook for damages. If the house is sold for less than what the purchaser agreed to, the purchaser’s damages is the sum between (purchasers offering price + costs) – (new purchaser price). What the vendor cannot do is nothing and push the entire burden of damages onto the purchaser.

Mom2KG: These are all good points for your readers to know, and we actually discussed playing the anticipatory breach card as a way out of the deal. But, in our situation, there were other pressure points on how it all played out. We certainly tried to figure out who was in the wrong and why, and that included whether either agent had been negligent. As I’ll discuss in more detail later, though, we never played those cards and got what we wanted mostly through negotiation.

TMW: How helpful was the real estate agent in the beginning of this process?

Mom2KG: Our agent alerted the vendor’s agent to the tank. They realized right away, thankfully, that it was their responsibility. They knew they had to take it out for us, and could not hide it from the next potential purchaser if we backed out. (At that point, it’s what’s called a patent defect – an obvious, known problem with the property. When they sold it to us, however, the vendors, we believe, did not know about it, and that’s called a latent defect.).  Our agent was great – she did online research, talked us off the emotional ledge we were on, and made the hard call to the other agent. She knew it was important to communicate that while we really wanted the property, we weren’t taking it without the tank removed and proof of a clean property. I have to say, she leapt into action on our behalf and tried to find solutions.

TMW:  Timing was very important. Your agent got to their agent very quickly, identified the issue specifically rather than a blanket statement like “my client hates the home” and gave the vendor a reasonable amount of time to fix the issue. In other words, you gave a road map to a solution. Too often, real estate problems are ignored or raised at the last minute which allows the other side to raise the argument you were unreasonable or the issue is raised without a proposed solution being given; this comes off very badly as a negotiation tool. All you are saying is “here, do all my work for me” which provokes a really bad reaction. Be reasonable no matter what since you are framing your problem solving exercise in the context of either litigation or a title insurance claim.

to be continued…

Our regular columnist is back to complete her series on buying and selling her home.

In my last post, I spoke about tips to sell your home. This follow-up will give you some tips on buying a house.

1. Pick a Neighbourhood and Pick your Neighbours. Take your time and do your research about where you want to go. Do you need schools, transportation, proximity to airports and highways (yes, this is pretty obvious stuff)? Once you’ve narrowed down your search, spend some time actually driving and walking around. Are there lots of kids/too many kids? Is there somewhere within walking distance to grab a coffee? Are the neighbours in bed at 9 p.m. or blaring with a garage band at 11 p.m? Ask yourself if you can really live there happily for at least a few years.
2. Do your financial homework. How much house can you really afford? Interestingly, I got a lot of advice to “stretch myself” and buy a house that seemed slightly out of reach. Go back and forth between lenders, playing their latest offers off each other. Figure out how much renovating you’ll want to do, and whether you should finance that yourself, or ask for home improvement loans. Spend lots of time on this, and make sure you know all the ins and outs of your mortgage. For example, how much can you increase the payments every year, and when?
3. Don’t get into a bidding war. Sometimes this is inevitable, especially in high-stakes areas in Vancouver and Toronto. Be comfortable with the maximum amount you’re willing to spend. If it looks like there’ll be multiple offers, I suggest going in at your best offer right away (but listen to what your real estate agent tells you). If you’re the only one at the table, don’t panic and bid against yourself (i.e. talking yourself up to a higher price to make sure you get the house).
4. Get a home inspection. Just trust me on this. It’s worth the few hundred dollars you’ll spend. Good inspectors have no interest on what you’re paying for the house. They should just want to tell you whether or not the place is sturdy or about to fall down from termite damage on the next windy day. It’s sometimes difficult to get a home inspection clause into an offer, but it’s a cheap insurance policy.
5. See the house at least twice. The open house will fool you into thinking that there’s more interest than there is. All those people checking the place out – they’re nosy neighbours. An open house will invariably show pretty well, with fresh flowers, room spray and recent vacuuming. Try to go another time when no one else will be there and the house is more lived-in. Take your time and really “see” the rooms, warts and all.

Our regular columnist, Mom2KG, returns to give some practical tips on selling your home in the first of a two part post. Her next post will be on buying a home. Please note that I am a week long blogging vacation. Hope you enjoy today’s post and I’ll see you next week. Enjoy.

I recently bullied my husband into selling our house and buying a new one. One day, he was yelling “We are not buying a new house!” in response to an open-house brochure I proffered, and the next, we were putting an offer in on a fixer-upper. OK, it wasn’t quite from one day to the next, but we did move things along pretty fast. Here are my tips on selling a house. Next post - tips on buying.

Get on the same page. I believe my past posts illustrate how emotional money management can be between spouses. Since homes are often considered a family’s biggest asset and investment, it makes sense that parting with one must be a mutual, happy decision. (I’m a complete hypocrite here. I really did bully him.)

Sell first, buy second. Selling first is the less-risky move, obviously. At worst, you don’t buy and have to move in with your in-laws. But buying and not selling puts you at serious financial risk-you can’t get bridge financing until you sell. In the current housing market, you need to sell first, and determine what you can afford to buy.

Find an agent. I interviewed three agents. None of them thought the house was worth what we thought. TIP: agents would rather sell a house fast than sell for more. It means a lower commission, but less work, which means they can take on more listings for greater revenue. Anyhow, we went with the agent who seemed most willing to listen to us, gave practical advice, and negotiated her commission down.

Do you homework. We had to prove to our agent the house was worth more. The “comparables” were limited at a passing glance, but a more detailed analysis gave us confidence that we were selling something extremely desirable, even though our house is on the “wrong side of the tracks.” We pushed the agent to a higher price point. Worst that happens? You don’t get it and drop the price in a few weeks. On the flip side of that coin, if you are selling a cookie-cutter new build in a neighbourhood full of “for sale” signs, be prepared not to get the top price.

Finish your housework. Take an extremely hard look at your home. What needs to be done? You must finish anything not completed in the way of renovations. Repair cracks, wash crayon off the walls, and clean, clean, clean.

De-personalize. Buyers don’t want to see your family photos. De-clutter, and put away all personal items, as well as kids’ toys, the cat litter box, folded laundry, etc. Buyers need to see themselves living there, which is really hard with Uncle Ron looking at them from the mantle (When we looked for our first home, the owner had oh-so-casually left out pictures of himself with then-President George Bush at a golf tournament. Seriously?)

HIRE A STAGER. Invest the money (and some time) in a home-staging service. This can run into the thousands, but let me assure you: it is worth every penny! Stagers will view your house with an unemotional, critical eye, and help you de-clutter and get your house in viewing shape. Ours had us re-paint in neutral colours, re-arranged furniture and art, provided several accessory items, and even shopped for things we were missing (like lamps). By the time they were done, our home was a showpiece. No one lives like that, but buyers were completely entranced. We sold our home over the asking price, in a bidding war, in three days. We attribute much of that to the home-staging. Just trust me on this one. It feels like a splurge, and it may be a bit of a pain, but it will maximize the selling price.

Our regular columnist, Mom2KG, is back to update us on recovering from a flooded basement, dealing with the insurance company and lessons learned.

I’ve been absent from TMW for a few months, but happy to be back, especially upon reading of the blog’s nominations for Best of the Money Blogs in the Globe and Mail. Congrats to TMW! (TMW: Thanks, clearly there weren’t enough hanging chads in my favor! Haha).

This month’s post is an update on the flood our family dealt with in several months ago. We have now cleaned up the basement, re-finished it and finalized everything with our insurance company. It was a really, really long haul and took a lot of work, and so I have a few tips.

Be diligent. We got pretty tired of cataloguing lost things and pricing them out online for replacement. I suggest setting aside time at least once a week to do this, until it is completely done. Once we had a nice Excel spreadsheet of items, we felt a little more in control.

Be proactive. When trying to replace the washer/dryer, we were directed to some company that could get us supposed deals because they partner with a major retailer. The customer service was awful, though, and it didn’t take long to figure out their discounts weren’t so hot, nor did they help arrange delivery. It took dozens of phone calls. We eventually asked our insurance agency why we had to use this company. Turns out, we didn’t. We did much better going to the stores ourselves and negotiating. Never feel you have to deal with poor customer service.

Also be proactive with your insurance company – call them when they don’t call you, and you should even call once in a while just to ensure everything is moving along.

Clean up everything. We found out what had caused the flood and had it fixed. We also made sure, in re-finishing the basement, to paint very carefully to obscure any obvious traces of the flooding.

Understand what you’re entitled to. We had “replacement insurance.” I thought this meant we would total up the original cost of everything we lost, and get a cheque. Not so. It means you get the cost of the lost item, if you replace it with something of approximately equal value. If you choose not to replace it, you get a percentage in cash of the original value. So, when replacing our stereo system, the new speakers were completely covered, even though they were high-end items. A random children’s book we did not re-purchase, we got a few dollars for, even though the original cost over $20. There are other insurance options, so you should understand what your policy covers you for.

Be reasonable. We did not try to fleece the insurance company out of anything. For example, we did not claim to have lost a priceless art collection that did not exist. I’m not sure we’re the norm, however. We provided the insurance company with quotes for replacing a number of big-ticket items, and they approved them right away, saying “Wow, you guys are being really reasonable!” I think our approach really smoothed the way and got us what we needed as early as possible. Or, maybe we’re suckers.

Yes, it has already been another month! Here’s my regular columnist, Mom2KG with this month’s column about eating out and a question about timing.

I live quite close to Yorkdale Mall, which is a regional shopping mecca, drawing visitors from throughout the Greater Toronto Area and beyond (as well as the de rigeur disaffected teens). I was in there yesterday, and I finally saw evidence that the recession is here. Normally, I have to fight my way up and down the wide corridors, any time of day. Yesterday, I was able to walk holding onto both my kids’ hands! There was practically no one at Yorkdale. We went into one of the family restaurants, and again, hardly anyone was there.

But eating out is fun, and can be a great break from all the troubles of the current economy. Here are my tips on how to make the most of your culinary buck:

1. Use the Internet

Everything is online now. So check out the restaurant before you go. Often, the menu, including, prices, are right there! You can figure out what you’re going to have (also good for those who count calories), and budget for it. There might also be specials and 2-for-1 deals, which can sway your decision of where to go.

2. Don’t order alcohol

Ask anyone with a passing knowledge of the restaurant biz: the markups and profits on liquids are huge. This is especially true of alcohol. So, stick with water, and insist on tap, which is perfectly acceptable, and better for the environment. Pop is relatively expensive too, but often comes with free refills. Same for coffee and tea.

3. Share

Appetizers are especially economical to share. Who needs to whole bowl of stilton-spinach-(fake) crabmeat? Spend less on starters – and desserts – and splurge on the main course.

4. Don’t order a main course

Dieters know this trick well. Instead of ordering an expensive main course, consider ordering two appetizers for yourself. Even better, order four or five between two people. You’ll get a lot more variety and, very likely, a lower bill. There are even many restaurants that now specialize in these “small plates” or tapas meals.

5. Order the chicken

If you must order a main course, the chicken is usually the most economical protein choice. Resist ordering substitutions – that is a great way for restaurants to make money on you. Stick with the garden salad or fries, instead of getting upsold on Caesar salad or veggies.

6. Eat beforehand

This is not totally counter-intuitive. We order lots because we’re legitimately hungry, often having waited hours since our last meal. An hour or so before you head out to your carefully-researched restaurant, why not have a piece of fruit, or crackers and cheese, at home? That will curb your worst hunger pangs, but not completely fill you up. You’ll feel less of a need to order a huge meal, reducing your costs.

7. Question the bill

When the bill arrives, read it carefully! Make sure it’s right, and point out any discrepancies. Often, restaurants will “comp” you for those mistakes, in order to keep you coming back.

8. Find a place and stick with it

If you like a particular place, keep going back there. Compliment the food, and tip the waiters nicely. They’ll get to know you too and will often give you something gratis for your loyalty. It might only be a coffee, but it’s something you don’t have to pay for. This may not work as well with franchise restaurants.

I want to end by hopefully stirring up a debate. I noted in my last tip to “tip nicely.” I absolutely tip well for good service, but I know people who refuse to do so, or don’t tip at all, citing a refusal to give in to “the man” and “society’s rules” about tipping (see the rant at the beginning of Reservoir Dogs). Part of the reason I tip is because, as I understand it, waiters are paid very little, and are expected to make their real money in tips. They also have to “tip out” to the kitchen, sharing their nights’ earnings with the busboys, etc.

What do TMW readers think of tipping? It can add a lot to your bill, after all.

Our regular columnist is back for this month’s edition of her column.

Women need a lot of clothes. And shoes. Hair. Make-up. These things cost money, so make sure you budget and buy the right things. Need help? Here are my tips on making the most out of what you have.

Be organized

To make the most of your clothing collection, and your available closet space, you need to keep your threads properly organized. Every change of season, take last season’s clothes and store them somewhere. This goes for outerwear, accessories, casual and workwear.

Edit your wardrobe

I love de-cluttering, and my closet is no exception. Get rid of anything stained, out of date (nothing ever really comes back in again – Harry Rosen said that), ripped, too big or small, and anything you haven’t worn in a year. If a whole year has gone by, and you couldn’t find anywhere to wear that giraffe-print cotton tank, there’s a reason. Be honest. Toss it.

Take an appraising glance

Many stores offer styling advice, which often starts with a current-wardrobe consultation. An office tower I used to work in offered a free personal shopper service, and what I learned from her styling advice was invaluable.

Once you’ve de-cluttered and organized, look at what you have left. Now, what do you really need? At a minimum, every professional woman should have:

• A classic trenchcoat and a very good wool winter coat
• Great boots and leather gloves
• Shoes: grey, black, red, brown – flats and heels. You can add a lot of pop to a wardrobe with just shoes, so splurging here is allowed – yes, buy those purple snakeskin stilettos (if they’re on sale and you’ll wear them).
• Scarves and great jewellery – again, you get a lot of use from statement necklaces and good earrings.
• High-end briefcase, plus a clutch and 1-2 good classic purses
• Two black suits – one plain, one pinstripe. You can wear the pants separately, and of course black is a good staple that works with everything else.
• Two more non-black suits, at least one with a skirt. Chocolate, navy, grey, camel and red – start with neutrals (yes, red can be a neutral)
• Sheath suit dress with matching jacket-good for work and going for a drink
• 1-2 blazers
• Nicely-fitting sweaters and wraps – 2-5
• Camisoles high enough to wear as a blouse
• 2-3 crisp, white tailored shirts
• 5-8 other blouses
• 1-3 skirts and 3-5 trousers

Once you have these basics, you can wear them in all seasons, changing up the blouses under the suit, as well as the shoes and jewellery. When you can afford it, add in more trousers, skirts and suits. Unfortunately, women’s suit are often cut in trendy, up-to-the-minute styles, which are lovely, but only last you a year or two. Go for classic cuts to stock your wardrobe, then layer in unusual pieces.

Make-up and Hair

Get a great cut and visit the salon at least every eight weeks; more if you have short hair or complicated colour or highlights. Nothing looks less polished and professional than roots.

Also spend some money on make-up. Go to a make-up counter and ask for a full make-up application (often there is a minimum purchase fee, but it’s worth it). Practice at home as well. You don’t have to wear make-up, and I suppose there’s something very non-feminist about advising you to do so. But I take a post-feminist view of this and enjoy the perks of being female.

If you can afford a manicure on a weekly or monthly basis, that’s great. If not, invest in manicure tools and do this yourself at home.

Tips

• Now is a great time to be a consumer. Look for and shop sale items only.
• Stock up on gloves, belts, socks, and nylons
• Most chain stores now have websites, and very often have e-mail subscriptions. Sign up to get deals and notifications of sales.
• Don’t buy it if it really doesn’t fit. It will look horrible, you won’t wear it, and it will be a waste of money.
• However, if it almost, almost fits, buy it and take it to a tailor. It’s a small, worthwhile cost.
• Keep the receipts in your wallet. Don’t let the store put it in the bag – they know it will get lost easily and you won’t be able to return it!

Our regular columnist, Mom2KG, checks in this month with a slightly wet edition of her blog.

You know that moment in horror movies when the main character realizes something is wrong, horribly wrong? And then there’s a few moments of suspense, while the character has to find out what’s up? Let me tell you, those nail-biting cinematic moments are nothing compared to how you feel when you realize something is wrong, horribly wrong, in your own house, where your children are sleeping, and you have to find out what it is.

About two weeks ago, we were settling into bed and simultaneously smelled something burning. We ran through the house in our pajamas, until we found the cause of the smell. It was not, thankfully, a fire. The burning smell was because the sewer had emptied itself into our basement and shorted out some electrical (what exactly, we’re still not sure). (When I say thankfully, I really mean it. I’m going to tell you about our flood, but a fire would have been devastatingly worse.)

The flood water was actually knee-deep. We have lost our entire, recently-finished basement. Kids’ toys: gone. Furniture: gone. Furnace: damaged. Water heater: completely broken. Appliances: gone. Carpet: bye-bye. Oddly large luggage collection: bon voyage. Fantastic sound system: trash. And more.

Things we learned, and that you can learn from us:

Be safe

Neither of us stepped into the water, realizing it might be charged. No matter how important stuff is to you, or how much it cost, it’s not worth electrocution (or smoke inhalation, in the case of a fire, or whatever). We called in some experts.

Be insured

We got word a day or two after the flood that our particular disaster was indeed covered. Everything (save a $1000 deductible) will be covered (and often, directly by the insurance company, rather than us having to pay and then submit a claim). This would end up costing, at a conservative guess, at least $10,000 – and it’s not coming out of our pockets. So buy insurance for your stuff and pay the premiums.

Know where your important documents are

In this case, the most important document was our insurance policy. My super-organized husband had it in his hands within moments of discovering the flood. Within 10 minutes I had called the 1-800 number and registered a claim. This put us first in line for calls back from our agent the next morning. It was one thing out of the way, and the claim centre was able to provide some helpful advice at the time. Other documents you may want to keep safe from flood and fire (don’t keep things on the basement floor, take it from me) are passports, SIN cards, health documents, birth certificates, and any other “official” documents issued by your bank, the government, and insurance company.

Know what you can’t do

Let me be clear – this was not a wet basement floor. It took professional flood-recovery experts three hours to pump that water out. We called, they came. But first, we asked the insurance company if they had a preferred contractor for us to use. Last thing we wanted was to rack up a huge bill to a contractor that was not going to be reimbursed. We thought to ask – and you should too (some vehicle insurance policies require you to use their preferred towing service, for example).

Take pictures and video

Document everything. We have pictures of how far the water reached (including a time-lapse showing the water rising in the space of minutes), as well as tear-jerker ones like a teddy bear floating on scum-laden sewer water.

Take time to go through everything

Again, document. Get friends and family to come help you sort through everything. You lost it, you insured it – you can claim it! Put together an Excel spreadsheet and don’t throw anything out until you’re done. Details matter – names of books, suggested prices, model and serial numbers.

Claim everything

Don’t toss aside some bedraggled knick-knack and forgo claiming its value. We lost about 20 gift bags, but at a minimum of $2-$7 each, claiming them is well worth it. Insurance is meant to make you whole from a disaster; don’t leave money on the table.

Keep records

Again, we were lucky this was a flood and not a fire. I have no idea how families are supposed to remember everything they had in order to make a claim for fire coverage. Once we get this claim settled, we’re going to make, and keep safe, detailed records of everything, from furniture to jewellery to DVDs. Visit it on a twice-yearly basis at least.

Mom2KG, our regular columnist is back, with new branding. Her columns will simply be known as Money Matters. In this month’s column, she discusses the 2008 round up and easy credit. She makes a good tip about keeping the meetings short- shorter meetings means getting to the point quicker.  Hope you enjoy.

Hello readers, and a belated happy new year. As mentioned previously, I will continue to blog on family finances generally, and keep you updated on my family’s journey to financial security.

2008 Round-Up

We did a 2008 round-up last weekend. A shout-out to my husband, who sensibly insisted we keep the round-up to 30 minutes. There have been some tension building over the holidays about spending, so this allowed us time only to crunch the numbers, but avoid any disagreements. We were pleased to find that we’d done well with the mortgage, as expected, and are on track with the goal of paying it off early. The number in the savings account decreased very slightly, but we chalked this up to unplanned changes in the kitchen renovation. Everything else was on track (RESPs, contributions to my RRSP account).

We did talk a bit about a general budget for 2009. This included putting aside money for trips through early 2010, home maintenance and renovations, and increasing the mortgage payments again if possible. All in all, a happy talk and a decent end to a tense year of family money negotiations.

2009 Plans

Since the meeting, we’ve realized that the interest rates are well below what we’re paying on the mortgage. Number-crunching reveals we’d save about $15,000 if we can cancel our mortgage and renew at the lower rate! Seems a little too easy – does anyone have any experience with this? If that’s the case, why isn’t everyone doing this?

Brief Commentary on US Credit

I was in Chicago in October (loved it!) and was shopping in Macy’s. I was offered a “store card” that came complete with a 11% discount for every purchase. Wowee. Sure, I’ll have one of those. It wasn’t until I was home and got a Macy’s credit card statement that I realized this was not a “store card” in the way I’m used to thinking of it, but a credit card! I was livid.

I saw two major problems. First, I thought the whole sell and information around the deal was extremely misleading. I was given no indication that this was a credit card. I was approved immediately, for example. Not that anyone used the word “approved” – they just handed over a temporary card. (Which made sense to me. I thought I was getting some sort of general loyalty card that encouraged me to shop at Macy’s.) I’d even handed over my Visa as the form of payment, but the clerk put the purchase on the new Macy’s card.

Second, it turns out I was approved, just like that, for a $2000 credit limit. This, even though I had mentioned I was a Canadian, and was there visiting for business. Should that not have sent up a red flag? I could have charged $2000 on the card, and – knowing what I know, as a lawyer, about the efficiency of chasing someone for that amount – Macy’s would probably never have chased me for it.

I applied for a Canadian credit card several months ago. There was some paperwork – it took me about 20 minutes, plus phone calls, and a credit check. And this was through as bank I’d already been dealing with for years. I had to wait a good ten days before actually receiving the card.

Is it any wonder that Americans are kind of in a pickle about credit issues?

Anyone have any similar stories, or comments?